I think 14 and under becasue everyone I have ever seen above tht acually ahd some common sense and that is probably the key thing to have when tou are learning something. on a personal note I am 16 and i started playing when I was around 8 years old

I voted 14 and younger, but I see 40 year old men who act like they are teenagers... lol.

i think 18 and younger, but i totally agree about 40yr old men who act like they are teenagers....actually when reffing in the past i was under the impression that one player was about 15 by the way he responded to me pulling him for a 1for1.....but then he took his mask off after the game and i realized he was about 38.

For most fields requiring 10 and older with their actual parent/guardian to sign the waiver form. Then there are a few fields that have 12 and older with actual parent/gaurdian being present and signing the form.

That leaves 3 years to play (1 at some). I say 16 and under for THEY all tend to violate some simple safety rule from time to time. (average not actual fact, yes I have reffed a few hundred games)

This leave to the simple fact that maturity is still in the ball park average. Each child is different but your on the average expectaion.

The 17 year old is close enough to an adult that they tend to be leaps and bounds over the average 10 to 13 year old but not much over the 14 to 16 year old. Lets just throw them into the upper age range.

Keep in mind that a car alone is not a factor for being Young or Old. People in NYC don't own a car and get around rather well living years without it. Heck, I was 22 and fesh out he Navy before I owned a car or a U.S. drivers licence.
Plus most of all the 16 to 18 year old people I have know and even now drive mom and dads car and do not own their own.

Plus a good 6 year range of age is good for people to start playing and some leauges require the young guns to have no more than 2 years of young guns experiance to prevent the team of 16 year olds to wipe all teams from their 4 to 6 years experiance each. Again prevent unbalanced fields of play.

Then again, each league has thier rules set for a reason. "Adults know best" . . . ha ha, just kidding.

i am 16, and play with a competitive d2 team that travels to play other quality teams, i have been on this team since i was 14. now if if i was the type of person who did not respect the aspects of the game and decided to go and play a young guns tournament i could probably pull it off (unless in the unlikely case that they do appa backround checks). i strongly believe that the term "YOUNG GUNS" should belong to players 15/16 and younger. after that age the skill range starts to differ. that ways, when the younger and less experienced players who have good hearts want to go out and play a local tournament with their buddys and have fun dont get a bad taste in their mouth for tournament paintball from the sandbaggers there.

young guns change state to state and city to city. the first young guns ever played was 18 and younger because you were not an adult yet. now if you were 40 but "young" to the game your beginner...... my 2 cents take it for what its worth